The potential for 5G goes beyond just improving download speeds and latency for entertainment content and into more practical uses. One of these potential uses is in the growing market for light fidelity, more commonly known as Li-Fi, an emerging technology for both offices and the home.
Li-Fi provides high speed communication in places where radio frequencies may interfere with equipment — like hospitals or factories — or where Wi-Fi signals are weak. Li-Fi is designed to use light emitting diode (LED) bulbs that are outfitted with a chip that modulates the light for optical data transmissions. Li-Fi data is transmitted by the LED bulbs and to the receivers of smart devices, laptops, smart TVs and any other device that has a data connection.
Recently Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, joined forces with Vodafone Germany to interlink its 5G technologies with Signify’s Li-Fi. The goal is to develop use cases and applications for two-way wireless communications at speeds beyond traditional wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
This is an early phase collaboration to show what is possible with hybrid solutions such as Li-Fi and 5G, however, Signify hopes this will lead to more widespread adoption of the combination of technologies, said Michel Germe, global head of Li-Fi systems at Signify.
“It’s too early to say whether this will be the killer application [for 5G],” Germe said. “What I can say is that we see this as a great start, showcasing how we can create hybrid solutions using a seamless handover and aggregation between 5G and Li-Fi. For us Li-Fi offers great promise to extend 5G connectivity from outdoors to indoors.”
While 5G supports up to 10 times the speed of current generation wireless communications, it will take time to get to this level of speed. Additionally, because the technology just started deployment in the first half of 2019, 5G coverage is limited to only certain areas. 5G technologies in the higher bandwidth, known as millimeter wave (mmWave), currently have trouble penetrating some objects such as buildings or trees, which limits coverage.
If Li-Fi gains traction working with 5G, it could be used as a bridge to enable the high-speed wireless internet inside offices, factories and homes where the walls may be a significant burden to get a signal otherwise. The combination of 5G and Li-Fi also could accelerate the internet of things (IoT) in industrial spaces where radio frequencies perform poorly due to critical environments or when wireless communication is not allowed due to safety regulations.
“5G could very likely become the motivator for Li-Fi technology because Li-Fi offers high-speed access networks, while 5G core networks could support such high rate data streams,” said Wang Shen, senior analyst for LEDs and lighting.
Several disadvantages
That said, Shen believes there are several disadvantages to Li-Fi such as uplink solutions. While visible light is in the range of electromagnetic waves, same as other communications methods, the much higher frequency offers higher transmission rates and a shorter range.
“This means that Li-Fi can be a high speed communications method but high speed communication methods don’t have to be only Li-Fi,” Shen said. “Lighting gives added value but also is limited in its design and application such as using a phone in a dark room.”
As evident with the Vodafone and Signify partnership, the technology is being explored already and the industry will likely see more collaborations in the future most likely for certain applications such as industrial and automotive.
Signify already sees Li-Fi adoption gaining traction and offers a good way to extend 5G connectivity from outdoors to indoors, but it will take time before massive consumer applications are deployed. As with any new technology, the more complementary it becomes, the faster it will be adopted, Germe said.
